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Shrinking Mississippi River Puts American Farm Trade at Risks

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Re: Shrinking Mississippi River Puts American Farm Trade at Risks

#51

Post by nightski »

tomrod wrote: post #35
hinkley wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which suburbs also contain. I don't know which is the more sacred cow, the automobile or the lawn. I suspect people with an agenda picked one rather than attacking on all fronts, alienating a larger group of people.

Based on my experience, lawns are the bigger sacred cow. Cars get vilified in certain places. Lawns? Just me and my friends on /r/nolawns and similar subreddits. My rare mowing brings rabbits, frogs, insects of all kinds. Few mosquitoes, as there are critters that eat them. We keep the front trim (short) without seeding but the back a bit wild. My neighbors? They complain sometimes. They are the ones who voted out th…

I mow weekly and we have tons of insects, rabbits, and frogs. So many so it's a problem. I don't think they are very correlated.

Re: Shrinking Mississippi River Puts American Farm Trade at Risks

#52

Post by anonymouse008 »

pjot wrote: post #41
DavidPeiffer wrote: post #4

If you ever have a chance, I highly recommend going near a port and watching operations. I used to live near the Mississippi River in Iowa, and it was always impressive to see the barge traffic and think about the sheer volume of product moving. South of St. Louis, the barge tows can be up to 45 barges. Visiting Savanah, Georgia and watching the ships come and go was also impressive. There's a bridge that was built i…

I live in New Orleans along the river - some of the largest ships I’ve seen are branded with “Chiquita” and “Dole”. It’s hilariously fascinating to watch literal tons of bananas gently float by.

If you want an additional layer of humor, read The Fish that Ate the Whale. I believe there is still a 'United Fruit' building somewhere in New Orleans.

Re: Shrinking Mississippi River Puts American Farm Trade at Risks

#53

Post by nightski »

ericmay wrote: post #39
mc32 wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you don't manage it (fight it) you get the buried and re-discovered pyramids of southern Mexico (and Cambodia). Yes, there is a balance, however, the other extreme is also not viable for habitation.

Yea but we're so far on the extreme of slash and burn and pouring chemicals on lawns that it's not even worth considering at this point concerns of habitation. It's just not even on the radar in terms of things that we need to bother caring about for the foreseeable future (100+ years minimum).

Pouring chemicals? Maybe a few do but I only apply one application of pre-emergent a year and then one application of fertilizer in the fall. That's not really pouring chemicals. In fact nature seems to thrive in our lawn.

Re: Shrinking Mississippi River Puts American Farm Trade at Risks

#54

Post by UncleOxidant »

hef19898 wrote: post #43
fredrikholm wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's painful how widespread this notion of 'nature steals precious water' is, and how quickly the practical implications of such a mindset leads to further destruction. The municipality where I live have an annual cycle of doing things like: * Scraping away every fallen leaf to be burned * Removing all twigs, branches and dead wood * Burning or spraying down all weeds * Cutting the grass, even in places no one walks…

Not that we, or rather I, mowed our lawn often, at most ince every 3-4 weeks or so. This year, we decided to leave part of it to grow. The amount of insects in there was astounishing, so the patch stayed uncut between June and two weeks ago. The rain transfromed it ibto something less than pretty. Turned out the grass underneath is prettier than before. Next we gonna repeat the same thing with a different patch.

Did this for No-Mow-May. Left some patches unmowed for that month (we got a lot of rain in May this year). Lots of diversity in those patches. It was kind of hard to mow them in June - had to use the weed-eater first. Left a couple of the patches longer into July. Neighbor across the street almost came unhinged. Tried to explain that it was helping polinators... but it was a waste of breath.

Re: Shrinking Mississippi River Puts American Farm Trade at Risks

#55

Post by Kon-Peki »

ravedave5 wrote: post #13

This article has no details on causes. Minnesota has had a dry summer, and the driest September on record. Most streams/rivers in central/south MN are low. https://www.dnr.state.mn.us/river_levels/index.html

However, this is talking about river levels at Cairo, Illinois (pronounced "Cay-Roe", BTW) which is on the Ohio River right before it dumps into the Mississippi.

The Ohio provides the majority of the water in the lower Mississippi, so it is definitely concerning.

Re: Shrinking Mississippi River Puts American Farm Trade at Risks

#56

Post by ericmay »

nightski wrote: post #53
ericmay wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yea but we're so far on the extreme of slash and burn and pouring chemicals on lawns that it's not even worth considering at this point concerns of habitation. It's just not even on the radar in terms of things that we need to bother caring about for the foreseeable future (100+ years minimum).

Pouring chemicals? Maybe a few do but I only apply one application of pre-emergent a year and then one application of fertilizer in the fall. That's not really pouring chemicals. In fact nature seems to thrive in our lawn.

From my time in the suburbs, people spray weed killer and similar chemicals throughout the spring and summer and into the fall. Of course each individual is different. We never sprayed and just let them grow and mowed them down and then pulled them out of flower beds.

You can also verify that these are used extensively by looking at the number of products sold for this purpose at national hardware retailers.

But this is just one issue among many. Lawns are de facto desert areas.

Re: Shrinking Mississippi River Puts American Farm Trade at Risks

#57

Post by ericmay »

mc32 wrote: post #46
ericmay wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yea but we're so far on the extreme of slash and burn and pouring chemicals on lawns that it's not even worth considering at this point concerns of habitation. It's just not even on the radar in terms of things that we need to bother caring about for the foreseeable future (100+ years minimum).

I agree that we can find better solutions than what lawns provide, however, weeds, nature and plants will take over an unmanaged property pretty quickly... maybe 20 years. In 100 places are near unrecognizable. The abandoned areas of Detroit did not take 100 years to become overtaken by nature. And that's a continental climate. In Tropical climates the rate will be quicker.

Sure, but in the context of this discussion unmanaged property simply isn't an issue, in my view. It's too much management that's causing problems.

Re: Shrinking Mississippi River Puts American Farm Trade at Risks

#58

Post by nightski »

ericmay wrote: post #56
nightski wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pouring chemicals? Maybe a few do but I only apply one application of pre-emergent a year and then one application of fertilizer in the fall. That's not really pouring chemicals. In fact nature seems to thrive in our lawn.

From my time in the suburbs, people spray weed killer and similar chemicals throughout the spring and summer and into the fall. Of course each individual is different. We never sprayed and just let them grow and mowed them down and then pulled them out of flower beds. You can also verify that these are used extensively by looking at the number of products sold for this purpose at national hardware retailers. But this…

There are so many products because people are ignorant and just want an easy fix. It's pure laziness and has nothing to do with having a healthy lawn. There's a lot of money in laziness :)

A healthy lawn really doesn't require that much from a chemical standpoint, but it take effort to figure out what it needs and you have to do things at the right time. In fact, the healthier the lawn the less weed killers you need because a thick lawn is a poor environment for weeds.

Lots of people blanket apply fertilizers too. But in reality a quick test of the soil can tell you exactly what is out of balance and if you need that fertilizer application at all.

Re: Shrinking Mississippi River Puts American Farm Trade at Risks

#59

Post by ericmay »

nightski wrote: post #58
ericmay wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From my time in the suburbs, people spray weed killer and similar chemicals throughout the spring and summer and into the fall. Of course each individual is different. We never sprayed and just let them grow and mowed them down and then pulled them out of flower beds. You can also verify that these are used extensively by looking at the number of products sold for this purpose at national hardware retailers. But this…

There are so many products because people are ignorant and just want an easy fix. It's pure laziness and has nothing to do with having a healthy lawn. There's a lot of money in laziness :) A healthy lawn really doesn't require that much from a chemical standpoint, but it take effort to figure out what it needs and you have to do things at the right time. In fact, the healthier the lawn the less weed killers you need…

I definitely agree with you there, but even a healthy lawn is still a lawn, which is still a bit of a problem. Outside of insects in the ground not much can live there. You need a variety of bushes, trees, herbs, flowers, and other types of plants to create a healthy ecosystem there. A lawn simply can't provide that.

Re: Shrinking Mississippi River Puts American Farm Trade at Risks

#60

Post by b06timmer »

Am in New Orleans and folks are talking about an in-river levee to keep the salt water from intruding into the river from the Gulf of Mexico, because of the low river levels.

I know there are water restrictions in most of the USA but I never thought it would hit the Mississippi river.

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